Greenpeace: Way to go Steve!

But: "Apple hasn't delivered an actual green product to market, but no other …

A few days ago, Apple saw fit to release a lengthy letter about what Apple does and intends to do to make its products "greener." By pure coincidence, I'm sure, this happened after nothing less than a smear campaign by environmental action group Greenpeace. Let me refresh your memory:

Greenpeace didn't waste much time rejoicing after Apple's move, although they completely ignore the main point of Jobs' letter: that Apple is actually at the forefront of the industry—it's just that they didn't toot their own horn by touting their environmental friendliness here, as per the company's policy of extreme secrecy. (Okay, he didn't say it quite like that.) This is Greenpeace's response to Apple's increased openness about what they're already doing:

You're the consumers of Apple's products, and you've proven you make a real difference. You convinced one of the world's most cutting edge companies to peel the toxic ingredients out of the products they sell.

Once again, perception trumps reality at Greenpeace. Obviously, it's important to look at what manufacturers are planning to do to make more environmentally-friendly products and manufacture them in a more environmentally-friendly way. But singling out a company like Apple purely based on the absence of statements about what it intends to do in the future, with little or no regard for what it's doing today, only does disservice to anyone who cares about Apple products, the environment, or both.

Iljitsch van Beijnum / Iljitsch is a contributing writer at Ars Technica, where he contributes articles about network protocols as well as Apple topics. He is currently finishing his Ph.D work at the telematics department at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) in Spain.